Humanising America’s hawks

No one does a soft reboot of a man who waged a trillion-dollar war based on false pretenses that killed hundreds of thousands and damned the whole Middle Eastern region to an endless cycle of violence, like late night television host Jimmy Kimmel.

George W Bush, the former American president notorious for launching the first war of the 21^st century to secure Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) that turned out to be mostly grain silos, is now a painter. Bush appeared on Kimmel’s show as part of a promotional tour for his book titled Portraits of Courage which is a collection of oil paintings by Bush himself, capturing the courage of the American military in oil on canvass. This is his thing now, painting. His other thing of course was a false war with upwards of 170,000 casualties. But who’s counting?

So, when lovable old Bush, pioneer of false wars, now amateur painter (guess which one he’s famous for) appeared on Kimmel’s show, there was only one question worth asking.

“Let’s talk about the painting — now tell us how you started painting, when did this happen?”

Kimmel had only one question to ask Bush, and it was about painting. For some reason Kimmel didn’t say “let’s talk about the war in Iraq which you started on false pretenses and which has now plunged the whole region into bloody conflict…tell us how you started that war.”

Bush then referred to Winston Churchill and said, “If this guy can paint, I can paint.” He referred to Churchill’s paintings and not his well-intended war against a fascist menace because well, you know, out of the two the paintings were the only thing that were relevant to Bush here.

America, however, had noted Bush’s misadventure into Iraq. He had sent American boys for what was initially a three-month “regime change” drive-by that turned out to be one of the most destructive wars in history engulfing the whole of Middle East. In his last year, with the war in Iraq now a full-blown insurgency, Bush’s approval ratings stood at a miserable 38 per cent. So why, when Kimmel had the opportunity to interview a man disapproved by America as a hawk on steroids, did he humanise him as a painter. Why did he (not) ask him the hard-hitting questions?

“Were you an artist as a kid? Did you draw?” Kimmel asked, evidently as a precursor to the obvious question about the non-existent WMDs American soldiers had died finding.

“Agnostic,” Bush replied. Did he mean agnostic about the WMDs? About the war that ravaged Iraq more than the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein ever did? It’s almost like Bush is hinting that he wants to talk about Iraq, maybe Kimmel will pick up on it.

“So then, what do you do? What’s the next step? Did you go buy paints? Did you have someone go get the paints for you?” Nope, still on the painting.

And here’s the effect. When Kimmel asked this question, the audience burst into laughter and Bush into a coy smile. The love affair was on. Kimmel proceeded with fluffy softball questions like “How do you find a good art instructor, is it like a craigslist kind of a deal?” The audience bursts into laughter again. And now, Bush is laughing heartily as he faces the adoring crowd which, thanks to Kimmel, now finds adorable the former President’s inability to buy paints himself. Bush, long time ultra-hawkish villain of the Iraq misadventure that killed hundreds of thousands, misplaced millions and upended an ancient civilization based on false pretenses, is now humanised.

The humanisation was such that Will Ferrell had to stage a comeback of his portrayal of Bush on Saturday Night Live, to remind Americans of something important.

“The point is that I’m suddenly popular AF. And a lot of people are saying, man I wish George Bush was still President right about now. So, I just wanted to address my fellow Americans tonight and remind you guys that I was really bad. Like historically not good. Don’t forget we’re still in two different wars that I started.”

To sum it all up Will Ferrell’s President Bush put it rather eloquently when he jokingly said, “Hey what has two thumbs and created ISIS?” Will Ferrell’s President Bush proceeded to point his thumbs at himself, “This guy.”

Though, it’s not just Bush who was humanised. Donald Trump, who is almost consistently the target of the American media establishment, all except his friends at Fox and Friends, also keeps getting accidentally normalised. After having consistently berated Trump for his policies, Jimmy Fallon was like a schoolboy meeting his idol as he interviewed Trump. Fallon asked Trump softball questions like why kids should want to become President and topped it off with a fanboy request to play with Trump’s hair thus normalising what had been a history of misogynistic, racist and xenophobic actions and statements by a sitting American President.

And so, it came to be that John McCain, an illustrious senator from Arizona, former presidential candidate and the single most recognisable American political powerhouse who wasn’t president, lost what had been a brave and spirited battle against cancer. Surely any loss of human life is tragic and it is not appropriate to speak ill of the dead, but it is important to recognise their legacy appropriately. John McCain wasn’t as prolifically disastrous as Bush, or anywhere near as divisive as Trump, but just like Bush and Trump, McCain was a leading hawk in the American establishment. While successfully walking the tightrope of public opinion, McCain consistently, yet quietly lent his celebrity support to Republican neoconservative interventionist policies. Behind his maverick war hero celebrity for which he is adored, McCain struggled to contain his staunchly neoconservative outlook. In reality, he supported interventionist wars and the militaristic bullish approach to international relations America became known for. He supported the first Iraq war, the second Iraq war and even called for military action against North Korea and Iran, which were both peacefully tackled by Trump and Obama, respectively. McCain’s most important legacy is his contribution to America’s foreign policy, which is likely to continue taking form long after his death. And yet, as McCain was eulogised, as he should be, there was an outpour of love and admiration from all corners, he was celebrated as a war hero, a prisoner of war and an American patriot, as he should be, and all this overshadowed a history of interventionist hawkism that destroyed countries, families and lives, a bigger part of his legacy for which he wasn’t recognised, as he should be.

Perhaps the most fitting metaphor of McCain’s legacy was manifested through the inept flag handling capabilities of the Trump White House which at the news of his passing away first lowered the flag at half-mast and then disconcertedly pulled it back up only to pull it down again. The White House too was unsure about McCain’s legacy.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2018.

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